Christmas in Parrydise

Merry Christmas! It was so fun to be here with my family. Christmas was nice and low-key. Just perfect. We opened presents. Had donut breakfast casserole. Games. Sledding. Some people napped. It was a great day. 

Santa couldn't find eggnog, so Reed's chocolate milk came instead.

Donut casserole

It was delicious

Jorja had Stockton's name for Christmas. She gave him a card. In it was a note one of Stockton's old roommates had written Jorja asking her for a date. It was awkward and Stockton thought it was awesome. He laughed and laughed when he opened it. She also gave him a Garfield alarm clock and we helped her get him some meal plans.

Stockton

Mike and Jorja who started laughing before Stockton even opened the envelope

Preston got a chess clock. Lots of chess was played.

Jorja (and Stockton) got Saranoni Utah State blankets. They are sooooooo soft!

John had Mike's name for Christmas. He gave him Kill Dr. Lucky. We had never heard of this game before, but it was so fun! It's like bizarro clue. All of us are trying to kill the host, Dr. Lucky. None of the other players 'know,' so you can't try to kill him if anyone can see you. Anyway we had a great time.

Mike, Stockton, Maysen, Jorja, Preston

The kids got a laugh out of this card. Trowel in the wine cellar. Edgar Allan Poe style.

Sleepy Porge

Playing Jackbox. Stockton's prompt was to draw me now. Haha Awesome.

Loved today. Christmas with my entire family. Jorja is planning on leaving on a mission in the summer. Enjoying every second of my life right now. My family is everything. I love them so much. Today was a wonderful Christmas.

We Are the Champions

It's Christmas Eve! We had fun playing games. We had a big Mario Party game. I lost. It was past midnight when Stockton, Jorja, Preston and I played a super intense game of Mario baseball. Jorja and I took the W! Haha. It was awesome. I love my family. So great to have Stockton here. All of us together, I love it. What a great day.

Jorja, Mike, Preston, Maysen, Stephanie, Stockton

Jorja thinks it's so funny to take pictures like this

With weird long arms. Silly Porge.

Stephanie & Jorja celebrate the win. Stockton stands in awe of our awesomeness.

Bear too.

NOT Fans of Certain Sister Missionaries

Mike was outside working on something on the 4-wheeler. For some reason a lot of people were watching out the window. I heard them all gasp/laugh at the same time. Bear had finally decided he could get through the gate Mike put up. He backed up and launched himself through the bottom. This is Mike's temporary solution.

These pictures uploaded in the wrong order again, and any time I try to move them around they delete... so annoying. Anyway... here is my story. Stockton texted me early this morning with the following text thread picture and said, "So some sisters texted President on the 26th and this was their conversation. We were not thrilled. I am so sorry. Happy birthday Mom! I hope it was okay. I'll call you soon."

I texted back and asked if the president thought they were talking about siblings, because this is what the church said when the mission calls home were changed.

I think that is what happened. It is sad that it happened the day before my birthday. Stockton said he was working on his coming home stuff he had to fill out at the church at 9:00 when the sisters came and asked him if they were allowed to call home on families birthdays. He said yes, you can call home on parents birthdays. They were happy to show him the text message. Just a few hours before my birthday. I am annoyed with them. I think they were just trying to get extra phone calls and ended up making it so I couldn't talk with Stockton. Stockton is such a rule follower, which I absolutely LOVE. I just wish he would have followed the missionary handbook instead of the sister missionaries vague text. The worst part about it was Stockton spoke in church ON MY BIRTHDAY! We could have watched him speak for our church! Many of his little cousins could have watched their older cousin speak about Christ for church. It would have been amazing. Stockton didn't tell me about this on Christmas because he knew he would be talking to me that morning. Little did he know that some lame sister missionaries would ruin this. (I don't care if I sound mean, I'm mad at them.) Stockton tried leaving me secret messages. He left this message on  his journal plates he is writing. He had the zoom link there, but took it down after church. He said he kept praying that I would see his messages. I didn't. Mike thought it would be funny if the mission president sent out a clarification today saying that parents birthdays were allowed, so the only day you couldn't call on your parent's birthday was December 27th. I'm positive that this was a miscommunication. I am so sad that I missed watching him speak in church. I would have loved that. It would have been the best birthday present. Those sister missionaries are dumb. 

We took the kids skiing at Kelly Canyon today. Rachel and Marie came too. We were able to talk with Stockton on the hour drive to skiing and the hour drive back. I know I shouldn't be too mad when I get to talk with him a lot. It was just the worst timing. I worried the entire day that I was going to miss his call and I was always asking someone to watch my phone if I was away from it. I talked about him calling all day long. Then I worried that he forgot it was my birthday. It made me a little sad. Then when I found out I could have watched him speak in church as a missionary I was so disappointed. I would have loved that so much. I'm so annoyed at those girls.

Anyway, it was great talking with Stockton. He told us about being at church when he was serving in Tucson. They had three minutes before church started and wanted to do some good. They had met someone from New York who had started visiting the ward. She didn't live in the boundaries, but came to church with her uncle. Stockton randomly decided to introduce her to the Ferguson family. They started fellowshipping her and she has become super close with that family. She sent Stockton this text message on Christmas. That made him so happy.

It was great talking with Stockton and I'm glad we got to talk so long. Too bad we were always on the road so we couldn't see him. I had asked him on Christmas if we could do a zoom video thing for my birthday so we could see him. I thought it would be cool for everyone that was here. At least my family got to talk with him. Just would have been super cool for the little kids too. I also asked Stockton to send me a picture of the big shirt he got from Nikki's family. He sent me this picture. They gave him the leprechaun too. It doesn't look too big here, maybe more so in person.

Stockton

Skiing was fun and not fun. It was soooo cold. We waited in line for TWO HOURS to rent stuff. We had no idea it was that long of a line. Then we waited so long we didn't want to give up. When we finally got our stuff we split up with Rachel. She took Marie to a small hill and we went up on the chair lift. I had gone to the bathroom and when I came back Maysen and Preston were already on the lift. I was a bit scared because I wanted to do something super easy to get muscle memory back. We ended up going down some blue hills and I wanted to cry. I just kept thinking about how bad I hurt myself years ago skiing. I did not like going down those hills at all. I'm sure I would have been fine at the end of the day, but I did not like it at all for the first run. The kids did great. Maysen and Jorja were so happy to be skiing. Preston fell so many times on the first run and would just laugh and shout, "Fell again!" He had THE BEST attitude. He was doing great by the end of the day. We only were able to go down four times I think. Our passes were until 4:00 and we spent two of those hours in line. Oh well. The kids still loved it. I was so cold by 4:00 and was not sad at all to go home.

My dad gave us his Christmas presents tonight. He gave us a print version of his blog and a flash drive of him telling stories. For the kids he gave them giant candy bars. He had asked us what each of their favorite candy was. I laughed when I saw Eve got Mr. Goodbars. Haha. My dad sure struck gold with this. Pretty cheap present and the kids were thrilled! Collin's face when he opened his pack of marshmallow cookies was awesome! He cheered jumping up and down. He was so happy! Hahaha Grace ended up eating all of her candy and told Brett that her tummy hurt and she wished she had eaten zero. Life lesson there!

Trevor, Mallory, Mina, Marie, Dad, Grace, Eve, Preston

With Collin

With Brandon

I stayed up until 1:00 in the morning playing Hokie Golf with my dad, Brett and John. It was fun. I totally thought I would win. I had an awesome hand on the 17th hole and was winning by quite a bit. Too bad my 18th hole was awesome and Brett ended up squeaking out the win.

To Parrydise We Go!

Merry Christmas! Mike, Maysen and Preston headed up to the cabin around 8:00 this morning. John and Cassie and their family were shortly after them. Jorja and I left around the time they got there. It took me a bit because while I was packing, Stockton called! Yay! Yay! Yay! He was allowed to talk with us for an hour. I asked him about dinner with Nikki. He said it was fun. They gave them presents. He listed them all, but I can't remember. Nikki had asked me what size jacket Stockton wore. I told her small, but Lynn had bought the jackets that day. I think they were Christmas plaid, I haven't seen a picture yet. Anyway, the jacket was huge on Stockton. He said Lynn was so funny about it and kept saying things through the night like, "I think I nailed it." Haha. I wish I could remember everything Stockton told me. It's only one day later.... my memory is awful. It was so great talking with Stockton. I called Mike on his drive up and was able to merge Stockton's call so they could talk with him too. I missed Stockton's first text where he sent me a zoom code. Dang it! Hopefully he will do a zoom thing on my birthday. I would love to see him. It's been soooooo long!

Mike put in a doggie door as soon as he got up here. Bear is a fan. He also put up my boot drying rack that they gave me for my birthday. John and Cassie got up there after and were able to spend some time sledding today.

The mug John uses now Hahaha

Birthday present ~ boot drying rack

John and Cassie at the cabin

Sunset in Parrydise

Jorja and I arrived after the sun went down. Cassie had spaghetti ready and it was delicious. We had a great time. Games, movies, etc. The kids loved the rock climbing stuff Mike put in. Jorja watched Soul with the kids downstairs. Mike, John, Cassie and I played Nertz. Mike won. Mike, Maysen, Preston, John and Mallory played Stop Thief! I can't remember who won that game. I also am annoyed that I forgot to bring Dominion. I haven't played that forever and wanted to bring it this time. Matt and his family are staying at Steve and Sharon's cabin. They got here this evening. Hopefully we will get to see them sledding tomorrow.

Christmas

Christmas at the cabin is the best! We had stockings and Santa presents. Mike and I got a back up camera. Maysen got ear pods, the generic kind. Jorja got a mini photo printer and Preston got a drone. He loved it and Mike and Preston had a lot of fun with that today. Too bad I didn't steal any pictures.

Today revolved around missionaries. Brandon and Erica called this morning. (Brandon also got to call on Monday and Erica got to call yesterday. It was their p-days. Stockton's p-day got changed to today.) Stockton called this afternoon. It was so great to talk to him. He did a video chat. Brandon and Erica do that every week. Stockton usually just calls us. That works great because we get to talk for a long time while both of us are doing stuff. It was nice to actually see him on Christmas though! I found a couple of pictures on Stockton's google photos that were taken yesterday. I don't know which family this is, but I love that they took care of my boy!

Four kids, Stockton on the rocking horse, Elder Kelly

 Stockton and Elder Kelly

 I got this peppermint shot glass and egg nog to put in it. hahaha

 Jacob, Stephanie, Tiny Shannon

While we spent the day talking to missionaries, Weston spent the day building a snow fort. I don't have a picture of the outside for some reason, but here we are enjoying it with him while playing cards. Jacob played with us too. He came out after I took these pictures though.

Preston, Jorja, Weston, Stephanie

Weston, Jorja and Preston all stayed and watched a movie. Mike put on Abominable for them. They were cozy in there. They had grand plans to sleep there, but after the cards and the movie they were ready to come inside.

Jorja, Weston, Preston

Mike, Steve, Jacob and I played two games of pinochle this trip. Both games Mike and I were getting killed, then somehow came back and won. We had Jumanji on in the background while we played. Maybe that helped steal their concentration and catch them off guard. We leave tomorrow. This trip has seemed super fast and really fun. It is so nice to have time to spend with Mike's family. I'm glad two of his siblings were able to come up here and enjoy this time with him. Jorja loves having two cousins in her same grade. Nice that we live in Utah now where she can enjoy them!

Christmas Eve

I love spending Christmas Eve at the cabin. Sherry and her family left this morning. Steve and Shannon stayed here with us. Mike and Steve were able to fix the 4 wheeler, so that was wonderful. Today was pretty warm and it was snowing wet snow. Ugh. Great for building things, not great for sledding. We had a lot of fun playing games though. We went night sledding, which was a ton of fun. The light on my hat started dimming which made sledding super dark sometimes. I held it out in front of me while I sled on my belly, that seemed to work better. I need to remember to charge it everyday. Mike and Sherry bought a giant sled that has been fun. Except that it is super hard to steer! Steve and Weston almost ran straight into a tree. It is really fun though. We sled all the way until Christmas! Haha

Just after midnight we hung our stockings and opened our Christmas jammies before we crashed for the night.

No Stockton ~ hope the has a nice Christmas in Arizona!

 Christmas jammies ~ Stephanie, Preston, Jorja, Mike, Maysen

I let everyone pick out their own jammies this year. I wanted cactus ones and Jorja went along with me. Maysen picked out some red ones. Mike wanted a duck shirt. Preston wanted a homemade duck shirt. I need to get a better picture. But it is Quacky Chan playing Apples to Apples. He loves it.

Stephanie & Jorja

 I was annoyed that Jorja was pulling a face, so I made her take another picture

I always forget that I have SO MANY wrinkles when I lift my eyebrows!

Christmas then Cabin

I woke up to Maysen cleaning the entire kitchen. It was awesome. I'm usually the first one awake, so I definitely didn't expect that!

 Jorja is so excited!

Early Christmas was a success. Mike got the kids all laptops. They did not expect that! His work was getting new computers and Mike was able to snag a few for a pretty cheap price. Hopefully it works well for all of them. Preston opened his first and was shocked. Jorja was pretty excited about hers. She borrows mine all the time. She is going to love having her own space to do essays. Maysen was shocked with hers. Especially since she already has a laptop. It is a little Chromebook that has been perfect for her. We told her that this could replace her computer. I think she will end up using it more than she realizes. Maysen was happy with it, just surprised that she got one too.

Jorja with her laptop, ACT book and Dead Sea mud

 Preston with his lap top, light hat, nativity and popcorn bucket

 Maysen with her laptop and new purse/bag

 I got a few puzzle books that should be fun

 My favorite present was this necklace

The heart is in Tucson, and it has Stockton's birthstone

Jorja dropped presents off at a few of her friends houses. Ben gave Jorja a present. She gave him this hat. Haha. What a weirdo.

Ben & Jorja

We left for the cabin around 3:00. We stopped by the mail store so Jorja could mail something to Conner. Next stop was Lily's house so she could pick up her water bottle she left in the car. Then to Dallen and Bode's house to drop off their Christmas presents and give Bode his jacket he left at our house. Then to get pizza, then we were on the road! The roads were great. The weather was perfect. We knew we weren't going to get to the cabin before 7, so we stopped and got groceries in Afton. This was shortly after I tasted the worst thing I have ever tasted in my life. I was driving and wanted a sip of water. I grabbed what I thought was my water bottle, it wasn't. It was Diet Dr. Pepper. I am allergic to caffeine. I can't stand the smell of cola, so I just stay away from it. Chocolate doesn't bother me unless I have way too much of it. The second I had the Dr. Pepper in my mouth my stomach started retching. I rolled down the window and tried to spit it out, while I was driving. I could feel my throat closing in on itself. Not to the point where I couldn't breathe, but it was the weirdest feeling. I always thought if I had caffeine it just made me have this weird cough. This was so much more than that and I'm not sure any of the Dr. Pepper even got down my throat. I am staying far away from that forever. It was awful.

The cabin wasn't super cold when we got here. Turns out we accidentally left on one heater. Whoops. We haven't been here since General Conference in October. We stayed up pretty late. Mike, Maysen and I played WIM that Mike made for me for Christmas. I won even though I didn't deserve to win. Mike and Maysen came up with way better words. I had a few lucky turns where I was able to get triple points on adding onto words that were there. Maysen deserved a lot more points for gemini. Haha. We all slept in the lava room. It was nice and toasty when we finally got to bed. This week is going to be so much fun!

Mike set up the tree in front of the door he doesn't want people to use ~ hahaha!